I am, at times, a bit of a grammar nazi myself. It actually makes me angry when I see someone write could of instead of could’ve. When I see loose instead of lose, the likelihood that I will give any credence at all to that person’s opinions drops to a point somewhere down around zero unless, of course, they are saying something I totally agree with.
But, I have my limits. Recently, several people on my facebook page (I have a lot of people on my facebook page who claim to be writers, yet I remain unconvinced of their claim. If they are writers, it has not become evident within the limitations of a social media format.) have jumped righteous and made statements about how there should be one space after a period, and one space only. They seem to place great importance on this.
One particularly irritating and self-righteous young prick left this comment today: “Nothing says over 40 like two spaces.”
Fuck you, you smarmy little shit. Nothing says over 40 like being 60, and I’ll leave as many spaces as I want.
If the main beef you have with my generation is that we use two spaces after a period, you are missing the point.
My generation has polluted the planet to such an egregious degree that we may, within the next few decades, lose islands, entire countries, and several coastal cities.
My generation has started wars just because some twisted fucks thought it was good entertainment, and then my generation re-elected those war mongering fucks.
My generation has replaced good film making with cliches and special effects.
My generation has failed to heed Eisenhower’s warnings of the military-industrial complex, and instead of fighting it, embraced it.
My generation invented Reality TV, and if that isn’t a crime against language and human intellect, I don’t know what is.
If the biggest problem you have with people over 40 is the fact that we leave two space after a period, your life is suffering from a serious lack of quality problems.
I’m going to continue to leave two spaces. Deal with it.